Chapter 83: The Dark Mark

"Don't tell your mother you've been gambling," said Dad to Fred and George as they all made their way slowly down the purple-carpeted stairs.

"Don't worry, Dad," said Fred gleefully, "we've got big plans for this money. We don't want it confiscated."

Dad looked for a moment as though he was going to ask what these big plans were, but seemed to decide, upon reflection, that he didn't want to know.

We were soon caught up in the crowds now flooding out of the stadium and back to their campsites. When we finally reached the tents, nobody felt like sleeping at all, and given the level of noise around them, Dad agreed that we could all have one last cup of cocoa together before turning in.

We were soon arguing enjoyably about the match.

"Did you see him, Krum?" I said excitedly to my brothers.

"Krum! Krum! Krum! Krum!' the twins chanted while they marched around me, while I was standing on the table.

"The way he flew! It was more than magic, more than flying! He was like a bird! A god of the seekers! He's more than a man, he's an artist!" I yelled.

"I think you're in love, Ron. " teased Ginny.

My brothers and Harry starting singing at me.

"Viktor, I love you. Viktor, I do! When we're apart, my heart beats only for you!"

"Bugger off." I said as I hopped off the table.

After a while, Ginny fell asleep and spilled hot chocolate all over the floor. Dad insisted that everyone go to bed. Hermione and Ginny went into the next tent, and Harry and the rest of the us changed into pajamas and clambered into their bunks. From the other side of the campsite we could still hear much singing and celebrating.

"Oh I am glad I'm not on duty," muttered Dad sleepily. "I wouldn't fancy having to go and tell the Irish they've got to stop celebrating."

I fell asleep as soon as I comfortable in the bottom dreams were filled with Drum showing me how to pull off the Wronski Feint, while Hermione cheered me on. In her bikini.

Soon, the cheers turned into my dad shouting my name.

"Get up! Ron - Harry - come on now, get up, this is urgent!"my Dad yelled, shaking me.

"'What's the matter?" I heard Harry ask above me. I put on my shoes as he climbed down. The wincing had changed into screams of terror.

"No time, Harry - just grab a jacket and get outside - quickly!" said Dad to Harry, who was reaching for his clothes.

Harry did as he was told and hurried out of the tent, me closely behind him.

By the light of the few fires that were still burning, I could see people running away into the woods, fleeing something that was moving across the field toward them, something that was emitting odd flashes of light and noises like gunfire. Loud jeering, roars of laughter, and drunken yells were drifting toward them; then came a burst of strong green light, which illuminated the scene.

A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointing straight upward, was marching slowly across the field. They didn't seem to have faces...Then I realized that their heads were hooded and their faces masked. High above us, floating along in midair, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small.

More wizards were joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating bodies. Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled. Once or twice we saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his way with his wand. Several caught fire. The screaming grew louder.

The floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and I recognized one of them: Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside down with his wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers and she struggled to cover herself up as the crowd below her screeched and hooted with glee.

"That's sick." I muttered, watching the smallest Muggle child, who had begun to spin like a top, sixty feet above the ground, his head flopping limply from side to side. "That is really sick."

Hermione and Ginny came hurrying toward us, pulling coats over their nightdresses, with Dad right behind them. At the same moment, Bill, Charlie, and Percy emerged from the boys' tent, fully dressed, with their sleeves rolled up and their wands out.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" Dad shouted over all the noise, rolling up his own sleeves. "You lot - get into the woods, and stick together. I'll come and fetch you when we've sorted this out!"

Bill, Charlie, and Percy were already sprinting away toward the oncoming marchers; Dad tore after them. Ministry wizards were dashing from every direction toward the source of the trouble. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was coming ever closer.

"C'mon," said Fred, grabbing Ginny's hand and starting to pull her toward the wood. George followed and so did we, with Harry grabbing my sleeve, and I grabbing Hermione's hand. We all looked back as we reached the trees. The crowd beneath the Roberts family was larger than ever; we could see the Ministry wizards trying to get through it to the hooded wizards in the center, but they were having great difficulty. It looked as though they were scared to perform any spell that might make the Roberts family fall.

We ran as quickly as we could towards the woods. My foot hit a root and I ended up flat on my fucking face

"What happened?" I heard Hermione anxiously say. "Ron, where are you? Oh this is stupid - lumos!"

She illuminated her wand and directed its narrow beam across the path, landing on me.

"Tripped over a tree root," I said angrily, getting to my feet again.

"Well, with feet that size, hard not to," said a drawling voice from behind us.

We turned to face Malfoy, who was standing alone nearby, leaning against a tree, looking utterly relaxed. His arms folded, he seemed to have been watching the scene at the campsite through a gap in the trees.

"Go fuck yourself, Malfoy." I sneered.

"Language, Weasley," said Malfoy, his pale eyes glittering. "Hadn't you better be hurrying along, now? You wouldn't like her spotted, would you?"

He nodded at Hermione, and at the same moment, a blast like a bomb sounded from the campsite, and a flash of green light momentarily lit the trees around them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Hermione defiantly.

"Granger, they're after Muggles, "said Malfoy. "Do you want to be showing off your knickers in midair? Because if you do, hang around...they're moving this way, and it would give us all a laugh."

"Hermione's a witch," Harry snarled. I moved in front of her, shielding her just in case Malfoy friend something slick.

"Have it your own way, Potter," said Malfoy, grinning maliciously. "If you think they can't spot a Mudblood, stay where you are."

"You watch your mouth!" I shouted.

"Never mind, Ron!" said Hermione quickly, seizing my arm to restrain me as I tried to get at Malfoy.

There came a bang from the other side of the trees that was louder than anything we had heard. Several people nearby screamed. Malfoy chuckled softly.

"Scare easily, don't they?" he said lazily. "I suppose your daddy told you all to hide? What's he up to - trying to rescue the Muggles?"

"Where're your parents?" said Harry. "Out there wearing masks, are they?"

Malfoy turned his face to Harry, still smiling.

"Well...if they were, I wouldn't be likely to tell you, would I, Potter?"

"Oh come on," said Hermione, with a disgusted look at Malfoy, "let's go and find the others."

"Keep that big bushy head down, Granger," sneered Malfoy.

"Come on," Hermione repeated, and she pulled Harry and I up the path again.

"I'll bet you anything his dad is one of that masked lot!" I said, still pissed.

"Well, with any luck, the Ministry will catch him!" said Hermione fervently. "Oh I can't believe this. Where have the others got to?"

Fred, George, and Ginny were nowhere to be seen, though the path was packed with plenty of other people, all looking nervously over their shoulders toward the commotion back at the campsite. A huddle of teenagers in pajamas was arguing very loudly a little way along the path. When they saw us, a girl with thick curly hair turned and said quickly, "O¨¹ est Madame Maxime? Nous l'avons perdue -"

"Er - what?" I asked.

"Oh..." The girl who had spoken turned her back on me, and as we walked on we distinctly heard her say, "'Ogwarts."

"Beauxbatons," muttered Hermione.

"Sorry?" said Harry.

"They must go to Beauxbatons," said Hermione. "You know...Beauxbatons Academy of Magic...I read about it in An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe."

"Oh...yeah...right," said Harry.

"Fred and George can't have gone that far," I said, pulling out his wand, lighting it like Hermione's, and squinting up the path. Harry dug in the pockets of his jacket for his own wand and pulled out his Omnioculars.

"Ah, no, I don't believe it...I've lost my wand!" said Harry, frantically patting himself down.

"You're kidding!" exclaimed Hermione.

Hermione and I raised our wands high enough to spread the narrow beams of light farther on the ground. Harry looked all around him, but his wand was nowhere to be seen.

"Maybe it's back in the tent."I suggested.

"Maybe it fell out of your pocket when we were running?" Hermione said.

"Yeah," said Harry, "maybe..."

"Don't worry Harry, we'll find it " Said Hermione, trying to reassure him. Harry seemed as if he was going to fall apart without his wand.

A rustling noise nearby made all three of us jump. Winky the house-elf was fighting her way out of a clump of bushes nearby. She was moving in a most peculiar fashion, apparently with great difficulty; it was as though someone invisible were trying to hold her back.

"There is bad wizards about!" she squeaked distractedly as she leaned forward and labored to keep running. "People high - high in the air! Winky is getting out of the way!"

And she disappeared into the trees on the other side of the path, panting and squeaking as she fought the force that was restraining her.

"What's up with her?" I said as I looked curiously after Winky. "Why can't she run properly?"

"Bet she didn't ask permission to hide," said Harry. "Reminds me of Dobby: Every time he had tried to do something the Malfoys wouldn't like, the house-elf had been forced to start beating himself up."

"You know, house-elves get a very raw deal!" said Hermione, angrily. "It's slavery, that's what it is! That Mr. Crouch made her go up to the top of the stadium, and she was terrified, and he's got her bewitched so she can't even run when they start trampling tents! Why doesn't anyone do something about it?"

"Well, the elves are happy, aren't they?" I said, not really understanding. "You heard old Winky back at the match. 'House-elves is not supposed to have fun'. That's what she likes, being bossed around."

"It's people like you, Ron," Hermione began hotly, "who prop up rotten and unjust systems, just because they're too lazy to -"

Another loud bang echoed from the edge of the wood.

"Let's just keep moving, shall we?" I said, glance edgily at Hermione. I knew she needed to be out of sight. They would for sure target her after finding her, and while I was totally prepared to fight off a git like Malfoy, I know I couldn't take on full grown Death Eaters.

We followed the dark path deeper into the wood, still keeping an eye out for Fred, George, and Ginny. We passed a group of goblins who were cackling over a sack of gold that they had undoubtedly won betting on the match. Farther still along the path, we walked into a patch of silvery light, and when we looked through the trees, we saw three tall and beautiful veela standing in a clearing, surrounded by a gaggle of young wizards, all of whom were talking very loudly.

"I pull down about a hundred sacks of Galleons a year!" one of them shouted. "I'm a dragon killer for the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures."

"No, you're not!" yelled his friend. "You're a dishwasher at the Leaky Cauldron...but I'm a vampire hunter, I've killed about ninety so far -"

A third young wizard, whose pimples were visible even by the dim, silvery light of the veela, now cut in, "I'm about to become the youngest ever Minister of Magic, I am."

These sods. Trying to impress this gorgeous creature with their obvious lies.

"Did I tell you I've invented a broomstick that'll reach Jupiter?" I yelled, hoping the goddess would hear me.

"Honestly!" said Hermione, and she and Harry grabbed me firmly by the arms, wheeled me around, and marched me away.

"What the bloody hell was that for?!" I yelled at Hermione.

"You looked completely ridiculous!" she snapped back as we walked on, away from the veela and her admirers.

Harry looked around. "I reckon we can just wait here, you know. We'll hear anyone coming a mile off."

The words were hardly out of his mouth, when Ludo Bagman emerged from behind a tree right ahead of them.

Bagman's whole demeanor had changed. He no longer looked buoyant and rosy-faced; there was no more spring in his step. He looked very white and strained.

"Who's that?" he said, blinking down at us, trying to make out our faces. "What are you doing in here, all alone?"

"Well - there's a sort of riot going on," I said, slowly.

Bagman stared at me.

"What?"

"At the campsite...some people have got hold of a family of Muggles."

Bagman swore loudly.

"Damn them!" he said, looking quite distracted, and without another word, he Disapparated with a small pop!

"Not exactly on top of things, Mr. Bagman, is he?" said Hermione, frowning.

"He was a great Beater, though," I said, leading the way off the path into a small clearing, and sitting down on a patch of dry grass at the foot of a tree. "The Wimbourne Wasps won the league three times in a row while he was with them."

I took my Krum figure out of my pocket, set it down on the ground, and watched it walk around. Like the real Krum, he seemed rather web footed and clumsy, but he was still bloody brilliant. Everything seemed much quieter; perhaps the riot was over.

"I hope the others are okay," said Hermione after a while.

"They'll be fine," I reassured her.

"Imagine if your dad catches Lucius Malfoy," said Harry, sitting down next to me and watching the small figure of Krum slouching over the fallen leaves. "He's always said he'd like to get something on him."

"That'd wipe the smirk off old Draco's face, all right."

"Those poor Muggles, though," said Hermione nervously. "What if they can't get them down?"

"They will," I said. "They'll find a way."

"Mad, though, to do something like that when the whole Ministry of Magic's out here tonight!" said Hermione. "I mean, how do they expect to get away with it? Do you think they've been drinking, or are they just -"

But she broke off abruptly and looked over her shoulder. Harry and I looked quickly around too. It sounded as though someone was staggering toward us. Wr waited, listening to the sounds of the uneven steps behind the dark trees. But the footsteps came to a sudden halt.

"Hello?" called Harry.

There was silence. Harry got to his feet and peered around the tree.

"Who's there?" he said.

And then, without warning, the silence was rent by a voice unlike any they had heard in the wood; and it uttered, not a panicked shout, but what sounded like a spell.

"MORSMORDRE!"

And something huge, green, and glittering erupted from the patch of darkness. It flew up over the treetops and into the sky.

"What the -?" I gasped as I sprang to my feet again, staring up at the thing that had appeared.

It was a colossal skull, comprised of what looked like emerald stars, with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue.

Suddenly, the wood all around them erupted with screams, as if the sudden appearance of the skull, which had now risen high enough to illuminate the entire wood like some grisly neon sign.

"Who's there?" Harry called again.

"Harry, come on, move!" Hermione had seized the collar of his jacket and was tugging him backward.

"What's the matter?" Harry said, startled to see her face so white and terrified.

"It's the Dark Mark, Harry!" Hermione moaned, pulling him as hard as she could. "You-Know-Who's sign!"

"Voldemort's - ?"

"Harry, come on!" I yelled, scooping up my miniature Krum.

We started across the clearing, but before we had taken a few hurried steps, a series of popping noises announced the arrival of twenty wizards, appearing from thin air, surrounding us.

All around us, the wizards had their wands at the ready, pointing them straight at us.

"DUCK!" yelled Harry

He seized Hermione and I and pulled us down onto the ground.

"STUPEFY!" roared twenty voices - there was a blinding series of flashes and I felt the hair on his head woosh as though a powerful wind had swept the clearing. I saw jets of fiery red light flying over us from the wizards' wands, crossing one another, bouncing off tree trunks, rebounding into the darkness -

"Stop!" yelled what sounded less my dad. "STOP! That's my son!"